Child's Desk Makeover

I've always wanted to try a Photo Transfer project but never had the right project to try it out on. When I got this little desk I decided to give it a try! I used Plaid Craft's Photo Transfer Medium to turn this desk into a beautiful display piece that my kids can also use. The wood desk top was transformed into a usable Chalkboard with Plaid's Chalkboard Paint. Both the paint and transfer mediums were very easy to use and made this project a great success!

I started by painting all of the metal pieces of the desk with a spray paint to refresh the metal. I just used plastic shopping bags and painter's tape to mask off the parts I didn't want to spray paint and then used a hammered bronze spray paint. Next I painted the top of the desk with several coats of the Chalkboard Paint, letting each coat dry fully in between. Once it cured for a few days I conditioned the paint by rubbing chalk all over it and wiping it off with a cloth.

 Then I made laser copies of my chosen scrapbook paper. This paper is from the Graphic 45 Primary Collection. I've been hording it for several years now so I was excited to use it with out using it all up! Because mine chosen papers had words I had the copies mirrored. I measured the area I was going to put my papers and then cut them down to size.

Next I applied the photo transfer medium in an even coat to the front of my images and then applied them to my desk.

I smoothed down the paper with a scraper tool to make sure it was evenly applied to my surface and wiped away any excess medium. Then I let everything dry for twenty four hours.

The following day I used a damp sponge to wet the paper, then waited 2 minutes and carefully used my sponge to rub the paper off of my image. I repeated for each image I applied.

I let everything dry again and then used sandpaper to distress some of the edges and sections of my transfer (I didn't want it to look too new).Finally I used some watered down brown paint to apply a wash of color to certain areas for an even more aged look.

And here's another angle of the finished desk! I love the way it looks and I'm planning to use it as an end table in my loft! I highly recommend giving Photo Transfer a try, it was so easy to do and gives a beautiful finished result.